I have always believed in ghosts but never thought that my house was haunted. But one night, I had a vivid dream that took place in my house. I dreamt I was another person running from something. The furniture in my dream was different and looked older than the furniture that was in my house at the time. I woke up and for some reason, I was really terrified.
Shortly after, I would hear things like footsteps, doors opening/closing, and occasionally, heavy breathing at night. It always took place around two in the morning. Eventually, I started going to bed earlier and would be asleep at that time so I would not hear it. But on the occasional nights where I would be awake, I would hear those noises.
Once my mom's boyfriend moved in however, all strange noises stopped. I volunteered to let him have my room, so that meant that I had to sleep in the basement. I moved all of my things down there. Once he moved out, I was comfortable down there and decided to stay.
Shortly after he left though, I started hearing those noises again. This time they were louder and distinctly closer to me than they were when I slept upstairs. Once, I'd even heard what sounded like someone stomping on the stairs going down into my room, but when I look, nothing is there.
For a while it was only noises, but eventually it started to turn a bit more frightening. There are two rooms to my basement, one is the room I sleep in and the other is a storage room, sometimes the door to the storage room would be unlocked and open. At first I thought it was just my mom or sister going to get something, but the few times I've asked them about it and they say that they didn't go in. Also, there have been times when my new personal heater would not shut off... Until I would get up and turn on the lights.
Once when I was investigating a noise that sounded like heavy breathing from my bed, I saw someone in the corner. It was a shadowy silhouette of a tall man. At first I thought it was in intruder, so I turned to get a weapon and when I looked up, he was gone. It was a little past two. My room is not big, and there is nowhere to go except for up the stairs or into the storage room. I was only turned away for two seconds at the most. I did not hear anyone run up the stairs, nor did not hear the storage door open (it is very noisy, takes a lot of force to open, and was across the room from the shadow.)
Another time, I had a friend spend the night. (I did not tell him about the noises or what I had seen.) I fell asleep before he did. The next morning, he told me that around two he thought he heard someone whistling. He looked to see if it was me, but it wasn't. He said that he looked up and saw a dark, tall, silhouette standing in the corner. He said that he tried to wake me up but I wouldn't move. When he looked back, the shadow was gone.
One night, I came home from my neighbor's around two in the morning. I was not tired because I'd taken a long nap that day. Walking up to the house I felt like something was not right. Just to be sure, I looked around and everything was normal. I was lying in my bed and I heard footsteps coming toward my room. It sounded like it stopped right at the top of the stairs. I figured it was just my mom making sure I was home and I rolled over and attempted to go to sleep.
Then, I heard heavy footsteps coming down my stairs. It turned over to look, but nothing was there. I got spooked, but after a while nothing happened so I tired to go to bed. After a few minutes, I heard something walking toward me, it stepped on a few pieces of paper. I looked over, and the paper was moving like someone had stepped on it and then stepped off only nobody was there. I had my heater on, but at that moment, it got very cold, and all of sudden I was very sleepy. I lied down in my bed, and right when I was about to go to sleep, I felt something pressing on my throat. At that moment, I got up. But I would want to go back asleep. The same thing would happen each time I was just about to go to sleep, but each time it would get more and more intense.
When it started getting too intense, my body involuntarily started flailing around, like it was struggling. As my body was struggling, it felt like something was trying to hold me down. Each time it would stop, I would start to get sleepy and fall back onto my bed, but my body would start moving around like it was not only fighting the sleep, but fighting what was holding me down. At first, I had no control over my body. It felt more like I was on a roller coaster and my body was the machine. It felt like I was just going along with it. When I thought of that, I tried to scream, but my screams came out muffled. I tried to get up and run away, but I would get pushed back down. I tried to grab my phone, but my phone got thrown across the room by whatever force was keeping me from getting help.
At one point, the force got very powerful out of nowhere. I remember seeing my arm in front of me while I was sitting up, and that was the last thing I saw. I was moving, I felt my head moving, I felt my body moving, but the only thing I could see was that moment where my hand was in front of me while I was sitting up. The next thing I saw was my ceiling. After a few moments I realized that I was lying half off the bed. I felt myself convulsing and I could not move. The next thing I remember was waking up a few hours later and going to work. I was back in my bed the way I usually sleep, and I could remember what had happened. Just to make sure it wasn't a dream, I looked next to me for my phone (where I always keep it no matter what), but it was across the room.
I don't know what happened. Ever since, I've slept in my house only three times. I will only go into the basement if I really need to, or if somebody is with me. When I told this story to a friend, he got scared and said that he thinks I got possessed. Everyone else thought I was crazy.